Our Day From Down Under

Our Day Sucked
There's really no other way to put it
Miss Emery has been sick now since last week
Temperature since last Friday.
Took her to the doc Sunday.......Mother's Day
Got Meds........second round.......different antibiotic than the first
Temp disappeared for a short time and thought meds were working
HA! That's what ya get when you think........just don't do it

Wakes up this morning and temp is 102 degrees again....Gggrrr
Screaming......lots of screaming......won't stop screaming
My Poor Baby.........I know something is wrong......really wrong
Head to Immediate care @ Dr's office before they open
She gets to see her regular PCP.  Yea!!!

Long story short....she thinks she has Meningitis and tells us to go straight to St. Francis hospital to have a spinal tap done and they will be waiting for us when we get there
-Kennedy is at preschool and goes home with a friend.........thank you Shari and Jill :) We love you
-Gentry is with Emery and I
-Dana meets us there
-Get checked in to E.R. asap
-NO WAITING
-Attending Dr. says he would like to avoid spinal tap and eliminate some other things first

*They think she has a bad Urinary Tract Infection and extract urine.......comes back clean

*Worried about pneumonia and do chest x-ray.......comes back clear

*Worried about RSV and extract sinus fluid........comes back negative

*Do blood work.......takes 24 hrs so don't know anything yet

*Has "RAGING" ear infection as the Dr. puts it

*Decide not to do spinal tap b/c its major and Dr. isn't certain she has it

*Has a HUGE dose of some crazy antibiotic and fluids through I.V.

*Get sent home with new medicine

*Strict instructions to return to E.R. if she becomes lethargic

*Go see PCP again tomorrow

Basically we were told she was definitely sick.......but with what we don't know
Could be a bad virus
We are just hoping and praying she gets better soon
This is not our Sweet Little Emery and we want her back...healthy and happy

The pics are off of my phone so sorry for the poor quality

Sooo Behind

I am so behind on blogging

But I think you can understand

So here's a mumble jumble post

lots from the past few weeks

 We made a trip to visit Dad post surgery in St. Louis

The quilt at the foot of his bed was made by some wonderful ladies at the Methodist church back home. It's a prayer quilt.

He was able to come home friday!!! Yeaaaa!!!

However he is very weak.  It is going to be a slow process.  But he'll get there.

His pathology report came back. 8 of the 40 lymph nodes had cancerous cells in them.  So he will be doing chemo in Kansas City sometime in the near future.

He feels pretty crummy to say the least. He said it feels like he's been shot in the stomach about 5 times. Nausea is his biggest battle at the moment. Which of course comes with trying to introduce food again.  So keep up the prayers everyone.  You've been doing great so far.

The girls also made a trip to the dentist!

It was Gentry's first time!!!!! She did fairly well.  She actually laid on me in the chair.  As long as she was on me she was fine.

The girls love spending time with their Daddy out back in his shop.  Gentry told us she got her driver's license and that she is ready to drive Dad's old Trans Am. Watch Out!!!

And of course Mother's Day........

Always a big hype, but usually ends up being just like any other day.  I spent part of it in the dr.'s office with this one......ear infection........Ghhasssp!! Big surprise.  She's had a temp since Friday night and provided me with a full night of screaming last night. Hoping the meds will make tonight much easier.

Here we are watering the flower beds since it was in the 90's here today. The girls even swam in their pool out back for a good portion of the after noon.  CRAZY!

And yes

I am very aware that i need to get some sun on that skin

I am a bridesmaid in a wedding next weekend

My dress is hot pink and black.  It's going to look really great with that skin.......

Poor people

Dad Today!

Things are going well here in St. Louis. Dad is able to get up & walk the halls. They are wanting him to do it at least ten times per day. He was getting to drink an ounce of water per hour. But today they took all liquids away due to him being distended. He no longer has the tube that went up his nose and into his stomach. He has been able to get a lot more rest with out that irritating him. He also was able to get his catheter out! Belching and " the other " are what he is working on now. The belching provides him lots of relief from all of the gasious build up which at points causes him lots of pain. He had a hard time last night breathing b/c of it. Compared to the day after surgery though he is improving by leaps and bounds. He is in good spirits as well. The staples are a sight.....to say the least. He was cut from his sternum to way " down south "!

The camera somehow managed to be the one thing that was left behind. I've been taking pics with my phone & once I figure out how to load them onto my mom's iPad here I will post them.

Dad is extremely blessed through this whole thing. After his surgery was over Thursday the surgeon explained that they almost weren't able to go forth with it because they discovered his tumor had began to wrap itself around some major arteries. They decided to go forth and a had a team of vascular surgeons on standby. The whole thing took 8 hours. Dr. Strosberg was very happy with the outcome. He feels he was able to get all of the tumor but won't be able to guarantee that a cell wasn't left behind til the pathology report comes back. It should take around a week for that.

They said the pancreas is about the size of a small fish and they cut it's head off! They also removed his gallbladder, part of his liver and part of his stomach.

God had a plan for my dad last thursday....no doubt! My parents got here to check him in for surgery ( which was originally scheduled for May 11th but bumped up do to a cancellation....we thought!) & found out that the scheduler had made a big mistake and the other surgery had not been cancelled. It was a gallbladder surgery and the patient was a local. So Dad was able to be taken instead due to it being such a major surgery and having traveled a much longer distance. Had he not had the surgery til the original date scheduled he may not have been blessed with such a positive outcome.

So we are feeling so very positive this week. Thank you all for your wonderful thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming! My dad also has a caring bridge website if you would like to check it out.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/LarryThomas71

My Dad

Well I haven't made an update on my Dad in a while so here it goes.....

After several more visits to St. Louis we know the exact type of Pancreatic Cancer he has.  Only 10% of people diagnosed w/ P.C. have the type my Dad has.  He was told it is the 10% you want to be in.  If you can say that.  It is considered to be the most survivable.

 He was injected w/ a nuclear dye to find any other traces of cancer in his body.   Nothing showed up except one small spot on his sternum.  And they aren't even sure that it is cancer.  It could be something he's had since birth.  It did not show up on any of the CT scans.  So they are reviewing it a little more in depth to see if they think there is anything to it.

Last Friday they scheduled him for surgery on May 11th.  But he got a phone call today saying they had a surgery opening come up this Thursday.  He took it.  So he will be undergoing his "Wipple" surgery this Thursday the 28th in St. Louis.  He will be in the hospital 10-14 days.  They say 3 mos for recovery.  It is major surgery. They compare it to open heart surgery. It should take approx. 6 hrs. They will remove the part of the Pancreas where the tumor is. They will also remove the gallbladder and a portion of the stomach where the pancreas is hooked on to.  They will then stretch the pancreas up and recreate the connection between it and his stomach. And NO you can not live with out your pancreas.  A lot of people don't know that.  It will be approx. 2 mos before he will get to start eating solid foods.

We are feeling very blessed that he has got the best news possible so far with all of this.  With faith, family, friends and lots of love he will persevere.

Love you lots Dad.

A Perfect Day

Monday we had an awwwsome day here.
75 degrees
No Wind!!!
It was pure bliss

So a couple moms and I took all the girls in Kennedy's preschool class to the park for the afternoon.
We had a blast.
And they wore me out

Bailey and Jill

Bailey LOVES babies!

And these two are the only two out of the whole group w/ blue eyes!

The rest of the girls have brown

Jilly Bean!

Spider Swinging

Thanks Shari and Melissa

It was pure sweetness :)

Good Aim

Bet you didn't know........

I have good aim!!!!

Yes, we have guns in our home
Yes, I shoot some of them
And go hunting
On occasion

I shot the target above w/one of these

And believe it or not.......
I enjoy shooting

It's just that thisWife,Mother of 3, part time hairdresser, cook, house cleaner, laundry "do'r"
doesn't have a whole lot of time to do it

But when I do
I hear I am pretty decent

Our Weekend

We went back home last weekend to spend some time with our family.
We celebrated some birthdays @ my aunt & uncle's just down the road from my parents

The party was in one of their barns
The kids had free reign
And to say they enjoyed themselves would be an understatement

Here is my Cousin's youngest son Jace
Gentry and him are just about 6 mos apart
She's the elder
You could say they are a lot alike
Or each others speed
They were a total hoot

 The cake was really cool

Here are the 3 birthday boys

My Uncle Gail, My Cousin Sean and My Cousin Kelly's son Caden

Everyone is singing and Caden is getting prepared to blow out all the candles!

Here were the goofy kids i sat around
Do you think they enjoyed their cake???
I think they were just rubbing it in

I gave up Sweets for Lent
And I am soooo proud of myself
I have been soooo strong
More will power than I thought I had
Less than 2 weeks til Easter
Thank the Lord

B/c this girl is ready for some PIE!!!

PARTY! PARTY!

and then they were POOPED!

 The next day my Parent's neighbors came over on their horses for a visit

This is Duke........he belongs to 9 yr old Emma

Here is Kennedy sitting on Duke

She LOVES horses

She's asked Dana for a pony before

And when Dana asked her where we would put the pony her response was....

"Duuuuhhhh Dad...in our back yard.  We have a fence!"

We got a good giggle out of that one

Here's a little taste of what things are looking like around our house

 I have so much more to post about.....

My Dad

My New Bedroom!

Emery, our little growing weed

but it's late and this post has been long enough

Hope this finds you all healthy, happy and enjoying Spring

You will also have to click on the flower pictures to view them larger
Eeeeewwww they are sooo pretty!!!